2 Chronicles 35:1-27
1 Moreover Josiah kept a passover unto the LORD in Jerusalem: and they killed the passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 And he set the priests in their charges, and encouraged them to the service of the house of the LORD,
3 And said unto the Levites that taught all Israel, which were holy unto the LORD, Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel did build; it shall not be a burden upon your shoulders: serve now the LORD your God, and his people Israel,
4 And prepare yourselves by the houses of your fathers, after your courses, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son.
5 And stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the families of the fathers of your brethren the people, and after the division of the families of the Levites.
6 So kill the passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare your brethren, that they may do according to the word of the LORD by the hand of Moses.
7 And Josiah gavea to the people, of the flock, lambs and kids, all for the passover offerings, for all that were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bullocks: these were of the king's substance.
8 And his princes gave willinglyb unto the people, to the priests, and to the Levites: Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, rulers of the house of God, gave unto the priests for the passover offerings two thousand and six hundred small cattle, and three hundred oxen.
9 Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethaneel, his brethren, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, chief of the Levites, gavec unto the Levites for passover offerings five thousand small cattle, and five hundred oxen.
10 So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their courses, according to the king's commandment.
11 And they killed the passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands, and the Levites flayed them.
12 And they removed the burnt offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people, to offer unto the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen.
13 And they roasted the passover with fire according to the ordinance: but the other holy offerings sod they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and divided them speedilyd among all the people.
14 And afterward they made ready for themselves, and for the priests: because the priests the sons of Aaron were busied in offering of burnt offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron.
15 And the singers the sons of Asaph were in their place,e according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the porters waited at every gate; they might not depart from their service; for their brethren the Levites prepared for them.
16 So all the service of the LORD was prepared the same day, to keep the passover, and to offer burnt offerings upon the altar of the LORD, according to the commandment of king Josiah.
17 And the children of Israel that were presentf kept the passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days.
18 And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present,g and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept.
20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple,h Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.
21 But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the housei wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not.
22 Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
23 And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.j
24 His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
25 And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.
26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his goodness,k according to that which was written in the law of the LORD,
27 And his deeds, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
2 Chronicles 35:3. Put the holy ark in the house. Perhaps in idolatrous times the ark had been removed: and as the copy of the law written by the hand of Moses had been concealed, we need wonder the less. However, Tremelius reads this text, “Put the holy things before the ark.”
2 Chronicles 35:21. I come not against thee. Pharaoh dissuaded Josiah from fighting, by alleging the command of his god to make haste against the Assyrians. Meanwhile the prophet Jeremiah had warned Josiah not to fight, and avowed that he spake from the mouth of the Lord. The four next short- reigning kings of Judah seemed to reign only to allow Jerusalem to fill up the measure of her sins.
REFLECTIONS.
Josiah was pious, firm, and exceedingly vigorous in his efforts to reform the land; and they were the last of political efforts. So great was his zeal that he almost dragged the degenerate priests and levites to their sacred duties. In this view he shines more illustrious than the other good kings of Judah, because the age in which he lived was more depraved. The efforts he made to revive the long neglected passover do great honour both to his head and his heart; and the multitude who came to partake of his bounty, and the bounty of the princes, was more than had attended since the days of Samuel. But what avails this vast parade, while the heart is attached to idols and to wickedness? In vain did the altars smoke, in vain did the music sound, and the scribes read. It was a feigned devotion. Jeremiah 7:10. The very priests who sprinkled the blood were some of them ready to lend a hand to erect idols, yea, perhaps a Venus in the house of God; and the very princes who now gave cattle were in their hearts resolved to erect altars to every god: 2 Chronicles 36:14. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Hypocrisy is in thy heart, and the blood of the prophets is unwashed from thy streets. For this there is now no atonement but by the blood of thy children. Egypt and Babylon shall make thy country the theatre of war, and thou shalt be swallowed up in the vortex of divine visitation. And all the surrounding nations, marvelling at the peculiar severities of thy fall, shall be told that it was because thou didst forsake the God of thy fathers. And here is a mirror for the christian church. We, as well as Judah, say Lord, Lord; but in works we deny him. We are supine and indifferent, like those levites about his service. We make light of the sacred ministry; we see nations punished and plundered in war, as Judah saw Samaria fall; and yet we take no warning. What then will be the issue.
This good king, having attained his thirty ninth year among a faithless people; and perhaps his early piety somewhat cooled by the character of the age, found himself drawn into a snare. Pharaoh-necho entered his country to fight the Babylonians on the Euphrates. If Josiah had let him pass, he must have broken his league with Nebuchadnezzar; therefore he resolved to give him battle; and alas, for Israel, he fell near Megiddo. But he fell bravely: he fell, not looking on while others fought, but disguised as commander of a chariot, he fell worthy of David, and worthy of his name in personal conflict. God took him from the evil to come. People of Israel, weep for Josiah. You have lost the best of kings; and the greater is your calamity, because you shall never be counted worthy of so great a loss again. Weep, people of Israel; and let Jeremiah suggest the language of your tears. He consulted not the prophet, but the prophet shall weep at once both for him, and for you. See Zechariah 12:11, where the prophet figures the mourning of future times by this mourning in Hadadrimmon.